Rockets forward Chandler Parsons scored a career-high 34 points, broke the NBA record for 3-pointers in a half with 10 in the second, and the franchise record for 3s in a game, but the Grizzlies won 88-87. less

Jan. 24: Grizzlies 88, Rockets 87

Rockets forward Chandler Parsons scored a career-high 34 points, broke the NBA record for 3-pointers in a half with 10 in the second, and the franchise record for 3s in a ... more

Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle

Image 29 of 155

Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley (2) draws a charge from Grizzlies small forward Mike Miller (13) with 8.3 seconds left to play.

Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley (2) draws a charge from Grizzlies small forward Mike Miller (13) with 8.3 seconds left to play.

The Rockets don’t run it as often as they did last season, now choosing to save the simple maneuver for late-game situations, but Harden still likes to set a screen for Jeremy Lin to see if opponents switch. The Pelicans did and Harden went to work.

With a game on the line that had so often seemed on the brink of another bad loss, the Rockets screened and then rolled to a 103-100 comeback win on Wednesday, changing their defense on one end and then calling Harden’s favorite game-closing play on the other.

“I’m OK if you use that term,” Lin said of the Rockets stealing a win in a game they led for just 74 seconds. “That’s exactly how we feel.”

“Straight up theft,” Chandler Parsons chimed in.

Down the stretch, however, the Rockets got the stops they could not through most of the night, taking Eric Gordon out of the New Orleans offense to put Harden in range to swipe the win in the final minutes.

“He’s our closer,” McHale said. “He did what closers do. He closed and we needed it.”

First the Hornets’ 6-1 Brian Roberts switched onto Harden and was forced to foul. Harden made two free throws and the Rockets had their first lead since they were up 9-8 four minutes into the game. Next it was Austin Rivers’ turn. He switched. Harden lost him with a jab step and nailed 22-foot step back jumper.

“We drew up a play. We executed it well,” Harden said. “We run that play a lot, especially late in the game. They switched it and Jeremy gave it back to me. Teams don’t know how to guard it. It worked.”

After Anthony Davis tied the game with a free throw with 47 seconds left, New Orleans coach put Rivers back in the game on Lin. The screen took Gordon off Harden and he went to work.

“I was reading what the other four players were doing,” Harden said. “They all stayed home and it was mano-a-mano.”

That Harden would like that play so much should come as no surprise, any more than the Rockets will see plenty of it tonight against Kevin Durant and the Thunder.

“It’s really hard to guard,” Lin said. “You can see OKC, they run a 1-3 pick-and-roll that’s really hard to guard just because the guards are not used to being in position to get out and show and do different coverages and their size is not enough to say, ‘We can switch this.’ That gives us the matchup we want. We just want to get anybody smaller on James.”

The other change might have been just as vital. With Gordon cutting around screens and nailing jumpers, he was well on his way to a career night. He hit a pair of second-chance 3-pointers late in the third quarter after the Rockets had made their first comeback. He had 33 with 5:40 left and the Pelicans leading by seven, having led by as much as 17 in the first half and by 10 in the fourth quarter.

The Rockets, however, changed the defense to trap on screens, forcing Gordon to give up the ball. He did not take a shot or draw a foul in the final 5:40 of the game.

“He got going and we didn’t want him doing that in the fourth quarter,” Dwight Howard said. “We tried to trap and let somebody else beat us. It worked.”

With Gordon no longer scoring, the Rockets outscored New Orleans, 18-8, to finish the game. The Pelicans went 0 for 5 in the final three minutes of the Rockets’ road trip after the Celtics missed their final five shots and the Wizards missed their last 15. With defense to trigger offense, the Rockets never missed another shot, making their final five.

“We had trouble scoring,” Lin said. “We had trouble doing a lot of things. Then at the end, great job by the coaches, we trapped pick-and-rolls pretty much the entire second half and we were able to fight back.”